


For the First Time Today

by Ahigheroctave



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glee, Hannah Montana (TV), That '70s Show, Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-27
Updated: 2010-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 13:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahigheroctave/pseuds/Ahigheroctave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"First time for everything, right?" Five fandoms, five drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the First Time Today

**Author's Note:**

> Buffyverse in this fic is not following comics-canon because I am too lazy to keep up with it. The That 70’s Show bit clearly takes place somewhere in Seasons 2 & 3 after Jackie broke up with Kelso for cheating on her with Laurie. Vampire Diaries drabble is someplace in Season 2. HM is somewhere in Season 3 right after the Joanie break-up but before Lilly and Oliver reach coupledom. Glee is post-Sectionals and pre-Hello.

“What are you doing here?” She doesn’t quite believe he’s real. Why should she? He’s dead.  
  
He puts a hand on his chest, right where his heart should be beating under his skin, “I knew you needed help.”  
  
“Is that supposed to be an explanation?” She hisses at him. He looks exactly the same, what with the non-aging it shouldn’t be that surprising. How long has he been alive? How long has he been occupying his stupid black duster again? Her eyebrows furrow, lots of pieces start clicking together.  
  
“That’s supposed to be an answer,” He smirks in his usual way, but she can see how forced it is. He’s nervous. He’s wondered how this moment, if it ever came, would go. He’s probably written down scenarios. She guesses they were more romantic than this, that maybe she’d grown up a little bit in them. Maybe she’d dealt with her own mortality enough to be able to love him like he deserves. Maybe she staked him.  
  
“I’m not asking you for anything, okay?” He whispers, but his eyes are already boring into her in that way. The one that tells her, even if he’s too afraid to ask to push, he wants everything.  
  
“And I’m supposed to believe that?” She crosses her arms across her chest. She can practically feel Xander pressed up against the door in the next room, trying to hear every word. “That your being here has nothing to do with me.”  
  
A genuine grin flutters across his face, “I never said that, love, don’t go putting words into my mouth. My being here has everything to do with you.” His blue eyes dance as he mocks her.  
  
She can’t help but smile in response, “Honesty, that’s new.”  
  
He shrugs nonchalantly, but she can see the weight coming back into his shoulders, “There’s a first time for everything, right?”  
  
He watches as the words hit her and she turns away from him. She’s quiet for a long time, standing with her back to him, and he knows better than to approach her first. “If,” She says finally, albeit very quietly. “If you can talk the gang into it you can stay, only to fight though.” She shoots a glance over her shoulder at him, “As soon as the fighting ends, you go back to wherever you came from.”  
  
He waits until she’s gone before he lets himself smile. She might as well have just said he could stay for the rest of his unlife.  
  
\- - -  
  
He watches her, standing in the hallway alone. This morning she tiptoed around his house before driving off in the direction of the hospital, assuming he was asleep. Truth is, he was. However, Ella wasn’t. She was sitting in her room reading, like she does for hours every Saturday before he wakes up and makes breakfast (she isn’t allowed to use the stove unsupervised). She bounds in and demands to know why Quinn is in the driveway. He thinks maybe she’s running away.  
  
Imagine his surprise when he follows her to the hospital, into the Obstetrics and Gynecology department (he is seriously considering that second one as a career now), down the hallway to a room full of pregnant women, their husbands, and sweaty mats. She just stands there, at the door, looking from one end of the hallway to the other. It makes it hard not to be seen, but he’s always been good at being where he isn’t supposed to be.  
  
A woman who isn’t pregnant walks up to her, and he can see her talking, causing Quinn’s frown to deepen. He only catches the last sentence, as the woman raises her voice, “Well, we’re about to start.”  
  
He takes this as his cue to enter, “Hey,” He mumbles, walking down the hallway with his hands shoved in his pockets. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“It’s Lamaze class,” She tells him, practically growling.  
  
He raises an eyebrow, “I kind of figured but why are you here, alone, without a partner?”  
  
She doesn’t answer but turns the question on him, “What about you, are you pregnant? What are you stalking me full time now that Finn isn’t in the picture?” This silences him completely, all he can do is shrug. “I was just leaving.”  
  
She turns on her heel to leave, blond hair flouncing over her shoulder. She’s halfway down the hall when he calls after her, “I’m sorry Finn didn’t come.”  
  
She turns to look at him, and he eases his way over to her. “W-w-what?”  
  
He cocks a shoulder toward the door, hands still in his pockets. “I’m sorry he didn’t come. I could tell you were waiting for someone, I figure Brit and Santana weren’t your labor coaches.”  
  
She nods slowly, “Thank you.” He nods back in a silent _You’re Welcome_. He’s learned that when she gives these words she doesn’t want a response, she prefers you don’t acknowledge them at all. “I just thought he might…” She shakes her head, cutting off.  
  
“Never mind,” She looks at him. “I need a labor coach.” He stands there dumbly, not getting the point. “Someone to hold my hands while I practice breathing, to watch all the stupid birthing videos with.” It’s slowly dawning on him that she might be saying this to him for a reason. “Of course, I could always call Rachel, if you aren’t interested…” She looks at him pointedly.  
  
“Are you asking me to help with the baby?” His eyes settle on her stomach, and he has to keep his hands from reaching out to touch it.  
  
“There’s a first time for everything,” She smiles slightly. “Right?”  
  
He nods, grinning at her, “I could be a labor coach. Hell, I’ll be a kick ass labor coach!” Several of the women inside the room murmur disapprovingly to each other.  
  
She glares at him, “No swearing or you can be someone else’s.” She takes the room by storm and he follows in her wake, smiling to himself.  
  
\- - -  
  
Damon learns how to get girls early and he uses this information often, while Stefan is off learning to be a gentleman or something equally tedious and boring. He learns that girls get mad if you look at them to long, but that what that temper really stems from is their anger at themselves for appreciating that leering. The girls he knows like to pretend their in charge, but they won’t rebuke you much if you push them up against a wall and kiss them. Girls like to be told they’re pretty, but if you let them have it too often then you’ll become “my dear friend” or “like a brother to me”. What girls really want is what they can’t have.  
  
If you want the pretty girl, go for her ugly friend first. That will get her attention. If a girl asks you if a shirt or a dress or anything makes her look fat or if it’s a bad color for her, it does or it is. If a girl acts disgusted by your very existence, that just means your plan is working. The more beautiful the girl, the more strongly you apply the rules.  
  
He’s watching Elena pull at her Homecoming dress self-consciously. Stefan ran off to fight werewolf tire or something else heroic and YAWN. So he’s playing his games with Elena for the night as her fill-in date. He looks better than Stefan would have in his leather jacket and black button-down. He even wore a tie for the occasion. In fact, he’s very proud of himself actually, he really could pull off this high school thing.  
  
Elena is still tugging at her dress, right under the swell of her cleavage. He’s using it as an excuse to stare without really staring. She looks up suddenly, and he looks in her eyes, causing her to blush. “Sorry, the dress just feels tighter then when I put it on last week,” She looks at her stomach. “God, I’m being so vain…”  
  
This is the perfect time to apply the rule. _Yes, you are. And it does look tight._ “You look fine, better than fine,” She looks up at him. And as he sees her perfect brown eyes, telling him she doesn’t believe, the words just come out, “You look beautiful.”  
  
Her fingers stop straining against the flowing light-blue material. She breathes in deep, looking away from him suddenly, and nods. “Thank you,” He can tell it’s genuine by the raspy tone in her voice. “I wasn’t expecting that.”  
  
A grin plays at his lips, “Expecting what?” He asks.  
  
“You to be nice,” Her eyes lock with his. He doesn’t shy away like she did the first time, but she sees something flicker under his “I’m so badass” leer. She doesn’t like that, and she starts fiddling with her dangling silver earrings.  
  
She can still feel his eyes on her, “There’s a first time for everything, right?” She’s completely overwhelmed with thanks to whatever higher power is out there, because a moment later TiK ToK starts playing. It’s Caroline’s new girly bonding song and she pulls Elena onto the floor between her and Bonnie.  
  
\- - -  
  
They’re playing Monopoly in the basement early one morning. Well, 11 o’clock isn’t exactly early, but it is for Eric and Hyde. They’re just setting up when Jackie and Fez walk in, and Jackie demands to be the dog. Fez is upset none of the bronzed pieces have candy in them, but settles for the boat (“There must be a tootsie roll in there somewhere, damn it!”) while Hyde takes the car and Eric grabs his usual wheelbarrow.  
  
It is apparent in her first turn around the board that Jackie is luckier than all three boys combined. She lands on every Chance and Community Chest, receiving not only both Get Out of Jail Free cards but also a wealth of cash. The one time Eric lands on Chance, he’s forced to pay taxes. Hyde ends up in jail on his first turn. Fez throws a hissy fit when someone buys a yellow property.  
  
Eric lands on the big diamond ring and starts counting his money to pay the tax. He thinks he knows why Red is so grumpy all the time, rich people get everything and they get taxed for it. “Jackie, can you trade me a five for these ones?”  
  
“No.” She says, arranging her properties by color. (“Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, just like my closet.”) “Taxes pay for things I need, like cashmere sweaters.”  
  
Eric can see an insult forming on Hyde’s face but he seems to think better of it, “Yeah, Eric, don’t you want to keep the Mayor in business? How else can Jackie keep buying those adorable shoes she’s always wearing.”  
  
Jackie fails to notice the sarcasm in this, “Why thank you, Hyde, I’ve never heard you talk about government in a positive light before.” She looks very proud.  
  
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Eric drawls sarcastically. “For instance, when he’s looking for you to pay his way out of jail-”  
  
Jackie holds up a freshly manicured hand, “Say no more.” She fumbles through her stacks and produces a small yellow card, holding it before Hyde, “Generosity to poor people like this is often considered a tax deduction.”  
  
Hyde pats her on the head sweetly, “I like you more and more since you broke up with Kelso.”  
  
“Where is my free money?” Fez inquires, knitting his eyebrows. “I am foreign and poor.”  
  
Jackie shakes her head disapprovingly, “You’re a dirty foreigner, if you want a hand out, go back to your own country.”  
  
He chooses this moment to have his usual mid-game flip out, throwing the board up and onto the floor. “I will not play any more games with you stupid cheaters!” He storms out, but not before grabbing his bag of Skittles from next to the board.  
  
\- - -  
  
He waits impatiently for his “date” to make it down the stairs. He fixes his tie, he unbuttons his shirt a little and then redoes it. He still doesn’t have enough chest hair to pull that off. Finally he hears footsteps on the stairs, he breathes. It isn’t her though, but another familiar blond.  
  
“She’ll be ready in a second,” Her mother smiles, uncharacteristic for her. “Just needed a little help getting into her dress.”  
  
Sure enough, after a minute or so, he hears someone not very well versed in formal footwear trudging down the stairs. And then a girl appears, he doesn’t recognize her for a moment. He’s too taken up by the straight blond hair streaming from the high ponytail, little braids wrapping it up. He’s busy staring at the deep green, almost emerald, of the material of her dress, the straps racing across each other on the back, all the way up to her neck. He can see why she needed help with the complicated weaving there.  
  
“Wow Lilly,” He breathes, “You look like a girl.” He sees the look on her face and Heather’s, “Not that that’s unusual or anything, given that you are a girl but we don’t usually dress up to-”  
  
She waves him off, going to get a hoodie from the dining room chair, “There’s a first time for everything, right?” She pulls the black material over the green and he can feel himself frowning. “Let’s go, I want to get there before Miley snags Hottie Lamottie to dance with.”


End file.
